A Fast, Fair Market Price: Selling Your Home When You Can’t Afford to Fix It

In an ideal world you would spend a load of cash on your home to maximize its value and hope to get top dollar for it when you put it on the market, but we don’t live in an ideal world and you might be like many homeowners who can’t afford to spend money fixing the problems so they decide to try and sell for the best possible price in the circumstances.

There are plenty of valid reasons why you might want to sell your home “as is” but while still doing your best to get what could be considered a fair market price in return for a quick sale.

Here is a look at the ins and outs of selling your home when you need to get what you can from the sale as quickly as possible, including how to assess the situation you find yourself in, why it’s worth checking out all options before signing away your home, and some tips to help improve the offer you get for your property.

The need to act quickly

If you have eventually come to the conclusion that there is a need to sell my house as is, this will be the defining moment where you have assessed your current situation and what needs to be done to your property, before accepting that you need to act quickly to resolve the situation.

Each person’s scenario can be slightly different and it might mean that you have moved away and can’t be around to organize the repairs needed to bring your previous home up to scratch, or it might be that you have experienced some financial problems and don’t have the money to sort out some problems with the house.

A property has to meet a certain standard before a mortgage lender will offer anyone money using the home as collateral, which means that if you have got to the point where there are code violations and you don’t have the cash or the inclination to fix them, this is going to have an impact on the price you get and severely limiting the number of potential buyers.

Even if your home is not in a fit state to pass a mortgage inspection and you are limited to cash buyers only, there will be someone willing to pay a price but that figure might be a lot lower than you might have been hoping for.

Explore your options

Before you decide to take a cash offer and move on it’s worth exploring a few potential options that might be open to you and give you access to some cash to fix your home before selling it.

There are refinancing programs available like the FHA 203 (k) that you might potentially be eligible for and these could give you the money you need to carry out approved renovations.

As you might expect with a loan being offered in this sort of scenario there are pros and cons to consider. One negative is the high cost of mortgage insurance but a positive is a low down payment, which is a big plus if you are short of cash.

It could turn out that you or your home aren’t eligible for this sort of home loan which is designed to help you fix it up, but it can be worth finding out as it might be a way of boosting the amount of cash you finally get from selling your property.

The list of jobs affects the price

It makes perfect sense that if your home is in good order and you are able to offer a turnkey solution to a buyer they are more likely to pay a top price for the privilege of moving in with no repairs and remodeling to do, but if work is needed the sale price will reflect that fact.

If the roof needs repairing or the kitchen and bathroom need remodeling, these are all things that a buyer will factor into their offer and reduce the price accordingly.

A lot of the time it is fair to say that buyers can overestimate the cost of these repairs, which helps them to justify a lower offer. It is always worth getting some estimates so that you know what a buyer will have to spend to put the property back into good order again.

Once you know that information you have a better basis for trying to argue for a better price than you might get if you just accept the arguments put forward by a potential buyer.

Elizabeth Gardiner is a real estate sales associate. She also likes to share her insights by posting on family and lifestyle websites.

This blog is for informational purposes only. Any advice given does not constitute a relationship and is by no means fact. The information and advice given on this site is only an opinion and should be confirmed with a finance or tax professional.